Naruto Uzumaki Chances at Life
by SamMason666
Summary: Join Naruto Uzumaki, a prodigious young ninja as he goes through life to become one of the greatest Shinobi the Elemental Nations has ever seen.
1. Chapter 1

**[Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any related belong to Kishimoto this is just for fun.**]**

Konohagakure no sato, The Village Hidden in the Leaves, one of the five great shinobi nations, is a beautiful and serene place to live for both the people and the wildlife, the village itself being surrounded by a vast forest. Five years ago the village was attacked by one of the Bijuu, the fierce Nine tailed Fox. The fox reaped massive destruction to the Leaf destroying buildings and people with abandon before the previous Leader of the village, the 3rd Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi managed to drive the fox out before the current Hokage Minato Namikaze managed to defeat then seal the fox into just born son Naruto with the Dead Demon consuming seal at the cost of his soul over the protests of his wife Kushina Uzumaki. Shortly after Kushina passed on from her injuries leaving Naruto an orphan.

Naruto Uzumaki a young boy of five years old was standing amongst the trees of a training ground found in one of the many forests in konoha, as he stood there watching the three chunin practice, he remembered what got him to this point.

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><p>(Memory Sequence)<p>

Sitting in his apartment doing a large puzzle that Old Man Sarutobi had given him for his birthday, with only three pieces left and someone knocking on his door, (cliq cliq cliq) he swiftly finished the puzzle while getting up to answer it.

Opening the door he saw the old man, "Good morning Naruto-kun, how are you today?" Sarutobi asked.

"I'm fine old man want to come in?!" Naruto asked exitedly opening the door and stepping aside. "Yes, thank you." The old man said gratefully walking in and closing the door. As he stepped inside he saw to his consternation that it was filthy, with ramen cups all over the place, clothes thrown on floor and the large 1000 piece puzzle he had bought him complete in the middle of the room.

'Oh Naruto-kun what am I going to do with you.' Sarutobi said despairingly in thought, as he pulled out a chair and sat down before paying more attention to Naruto. " What have you been up to?" he asked.

"Oh you know nothin' really." Naruto replied as to sat down. "What about the puzzle hmm?"

"Oh I just finished it before you got here."

"Really how long did it take you?" Sarutobi questioned quite interested in the answer.

" Huh...oh uh about fifteen minutes." Naruto replied uncaring.

"HWUH" he said with eyes the size of dinner plates "really?"

"Yeah no big deal" Naruto replied.

'Naruto you have so much potential, yet no one to nurture it, all I can do is offer my advice.'Sarutobi said to himself in thought as he frowned.

"Naruto" he called for his attention, "yea?"

' I wonder what the old man wants.' Naruto asked in thought.

"Naruto-kun we only have so much time on this world before we die and you have so much potential, that to see you squander it by doing nothing bothers me to no end. I want you to reach your full potential, so from now on try harder at everything, clean your apartment, learn better grammar, learn history, the Ninja arts, everything so that one day you can achieve your dreams whatever they may be. Do you understand Naruto-kun?"

"Y-yes I understand Jiji er Ji-san." Naruto stuttered his reply as he thought about the advice from one of the only people to ever care about him gave.

'Can I really do that?' he thought as he looked into the concerned eyes of his grandpa.

'Yes I can' he replied to his own thought with resolve.

"I will Ji-san, I will learn everything." He said as strongly as he could.

"Good Naruto-kun good, oh look at the time I'm going to be late to the council meeting." He stated as he looked at the clock. "Goodbye Naruto-kun." He said as he walked to and out the door.

"Bye Ji-san" Naruto replied as he closed the door and looked around at his apartment. Feeling dread at all the work he was going to have to do. "Well I did promise." He said to himself he got to work. After spending most of the day cleaning his apartment, he thought it would be a good idea to go the library to see if they had any books that could help him.

As the building came into view he saw to his annoyance one of the meanest people he had ever met was the librarian on shift.

"Ugh why him? The back door it is I guess." Naruto said to himself walking around the building to the back entrance when he saw the door was locked. As he looked around he found a small window leading to the basement, so he popped open the latch and dropped in. Looking around he found he was in a storage room, looking closer at a shelf he realized it wasn't a storage room but a closed off part of the library.

Picking up a random book he saw that it was a history of the Elemental Nations. Debating whether to read it or not he suddenly remembered the talk he and the Old man had two days before. Looking down at the book he made his decision and put the book in his bag. Searching the shelves for anything useful he found to his delight books on Science, Math,geography, calligraphy, etiquette and a map. After studying for a while he went off in search for a teacher in the Ninja arts. But no one was willing to teach him. That was when he realized that Konoha was ninja village, shinobi train all over the place. So he took out his map found his location and went to the nearest training ground.

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><p>(Present)<p>

That's how he found himself here. As he watched the chunin train he started to feel something strange, as he tried figure out what it was he came to the sudden realization that it was their Chakra. He could feel its strength and potency, feel as it moved with their bodies as they did their taijutsu forms, feel how they molded their chakra with hand signs for ninjutsu. And he realized that if he could see them as trained he'd have the perfect teacher.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!." He said to himself as he smiled happily before starting to experiment.

**Please leave a review and any constructive criticism is welcome. Thank you.**


	2. Chapter 2

It's been five months since Naruto started studying the Ninja arts, and experimenting with his sensing abilities and while quite advanced he figured out early on that he could only go so far with a mediocre understanding of chakra. So he asked the Hokage for entrance to the ninja academy. In the academy he showed his immense natural intelligence and aptitude in the Ninja arts by understanding the basic material and making intuitive leaps in understanding the more advanced subjects. Impressing the teachers enough to let him have access to the more advanced teachings. In the coming months he would make incredible progress in both knowledge and ability in Shurikenjutsu, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Chakra control and other core subjects. Being capable of the leaf sticking exercise with five leaves in constant motion while going through katas, he knew that this would teach him patience and help him keep his chakra calm flowing and under control.

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><p>Walking through the park after that day at the academy, he saw a girl about his age crying, taking in the entire scene noticed some other kids pointing and laughing at her, so without a second thought walked over and introduced himself to her.<p>

"Hey I'm Naruto what's your name?" he asked as he sat down in front of her. "Huh" she said while looking up and noticing a boy around her age sitting in front of her before remembering he asked her a question. "Oh I'm Sakura" she replied, "well what are you crying for?"

"Everybody keeps making fun of my forehead and picking on me, not letting me play with them."She said with tears in her eyes. "well it is kind of big" "SEE" "I think it looks really cute on you" he finished with a smile on his face "Really?" she asked with a little hope in her eyes, "yeah so don't cover it with your bangs anymore." He said as he gave her a headband he kept in his bag. "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU" she yelled as she hugged him and jumped around before they both broke off laughing and fell to the ground. "So does this mean we're friends?" she asked after calming down " yeah it does." he replied.

SAKURA,SAKURA HONEY IT'S TIME TO GO HOME

"Well I guess I gotta go." she said getting up "Bye Naruto" she yelled as she ran to her mother "Bye Sakura." he said as he watched her leave, happy he'd made a friend. Continuing on his way home thinking to himself ._' _I'm glad I could help her and make a friend out of it.' Proud of himself for making the right decision.

Over the coming months he would continue to meet up with Sakura after the academy, before she told him she would be attending the next week at the start of the new year.

"Really?" Naruto asked excited she that would coming to the academy with him.

"Uhuh I'm so happy I get to spend more time with you and make mommy proud."

"We'll be in the same class because of our age group, maybe we'll make more friends."Naruto said excited at the prospect.

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><p>Naruto was currently sitting in the third row of the class reading a book on advanced chakra theory when the teacher walked. " Good morning class." he said turning around to see everyone ignoring him. "I SAID GOOD MORNING CLASS" he yelled with a big head, veins bulging and snot flying out of his nose. "Good morning sensei"they all said at the same time.<p>

"My Name is Iruka. You can call me Iruka-sensei, now I'm going to call your names answer when you hear your name. Okay?" "Yes Iruka-sensei"

"Shino Aburame" "Here" Shino replied in monotone.

"Choji Akamichi" "Here" he said as he munched in some chips.

"Sakura Haruno" "I'm here Iruka-sensei." she said happily.

"Hinata Hyuga" "H-here s-sensei." she said shyly 'I'll have to try and help her with that' he said to himself in thought.

"Kiba Inuzuka" "I'm here and don't forget Akamaru sensei." "and Akamaru." "Woof"

"Shikamaru Nara" "Here sensei." He replied lazily. "R-Right" Iruka said with a twitching eye.

"Sasuke Uchiha" "Here sensei" Sasuke said with as much confidence as a six year old could have.

"Naruto Uzumaki"He said with somewhat tight voice. "Here Iruka-sensei" Naruto replied as he looked at Iruka with a small smile to relieve his tension. "Good" Iruka said relaxing after looking at his new student.

"Ino Yamanaka" " I'm here Iruka-sensei." She said looking up at him and beaming.

" Good now the we know everyone is here we can start the lesson, so who can tell me what it means to be a ninja and what their role in the world is hmm. " He asked with a smile while looking around at all the hands that were raised.

As Iruka asked the question Naruto remembered his first meeting with Shisui Uchiha.

Flashback

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><p>Naruto was standing in a training ground preparing to launch the last of his shuriken at the targets he had set up. He jumped in the the air and let loose all eight of them, six burying deep into the targets vital areas while two curved around to bounce off each other to land deep in the targets hidden in blind spots, back flipping smoothly he let fly the kunai he had grabbed just after launching the shuriken and watched in satisfaction as all the kunai hit there targets in blind spots. Smoothly transitioning to land on his feet, just as he was landing he sensed a chakra he associated with the Uchiha clan just at the edge of the trees. Looking to where he sensed the person he saw a young boy about eleven walking out of the tree line, so he turned and waited to see what he wanted.<p>

Shisui was curious, he was on his way home after reporting a mission success to the Hokage when he saw a boy about Itachi's brothers age training, now this wasn't unusual. What was, is that he was preforming advance shuriken techniques that even he couldn't at that age. So he went to investigate. Geting to the edge of the tree line just as the kid finished his hitting all his targets, he was surprised again though he didn't show it when the kid actually sensed him , so as he walked out of the trees,he watched as the kid turned to where he was walking to wait for him.

When they met in the middle of the field he introduced himself "Hello I'm Shisui Uchiha, what's your name."

"Naruto Uzumaki it is nice to meet you Shisui-san, can I help you with anything?" he asked politely wondering what the young Uchiha could want with him.

"Now now, none of that san stuff it makes me feel weird." He laughed as he said this "I was just wondering where you learned such advanced techniques." He stated curious and only mildly surprised at how polite he was.

"Oh I learnt it myself, I would hit the other targets," he said gesturing to the targets littering the training ground, "but I ran out of kunai and shuriken." He said with a small laugh as he turned around and looked at the small lake present,before asking Shisui, "Your a ninja right?" turning his head to look at the older boy.

"Yeah why" He asked wondering why he asked a question with such an obvious answer since he knew from his interaction with him so far he seemed like a kid who didn't freak out from meeting a ninja like some do.

" My ji-san asked me a question about what my dream was, so I told him it was to be Hokage,the only problem is I don't know what it means to be a ninja. I was wondering what being a ninja meant to you." He said to him with a small smile on his face.

To say Shisui was flabbergasted would be an understatement, he knew the kid seemed smart but to hear from a kid who wasn't even ten ask a question that most ninja never ask shocked him enough for it to show on his face.

Naruto clearly saw the shock on his face but still waited patiently for his answer.

Shisui considered his answer carefully. "Being a shinobi a true ninja means to protect all that is precious to you, from your village, to your family with everything you have, that self-sacrifice… to be a nameless shinobi who protects peace from within its shadow...is what it truly means to be a shinobi." He said looking out at the lake as a wind blew through the clearing blowing his short hair back, before he turned to Naruto who was looking at with respect, and smiled back at him with happiness in his eyes.

"Thank you Shisui." Naruto said before asking if he would like to meet here again.

"Yes I'd like that, maybe next time we can train together."

Naruto agreed before going to collect his kunai and shuriken as Shisui left to go home.

Flashback End

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><p>Before paying attention to the class as Sasuke answered the question, smiling to himself at naivety of his classmates. ' It's going to be an interesting few years.' He thought to himself looking out the window.<p>

**AN: This is my first fan fiction so I'm still working on the style of writing and would appreciate it if you would follow and review my stories to tell me what you like what you don't like and any suggestions ****you might have. **

**Thank You (: **


	3. Chapter 3

It's been two years since Naruto had started training with Shisui, coming farther with him than he would've without, and he couldn't have been happier with his progress. He was also happy with his social life having made two friends in Shikamaru and Choji.

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><p>Flash Back<p>

Three months since the academy started, and Naruto was bored. Having just come back from training where he made significant progress with the leaf sticking exercise, he was feeling a little lonely since both Sakura and Shisui were away. So he was walking around the village looking for a way to alleviate his boredom, when he saw his two of his classmates Shikamaru and Choji playing ninja with some other kids, so not having interacted much with them outside the academy he decided to observe them. Disappearing in a blur and appearing on the roof of a building close by, he sat down to watch. A short while later something Choji was doing caught his attention as he had stopped running, to watch a butterfly stuck in a spider web, before gently freeing it and letting it go. Naruto saw that he wasn't the only one watching this scene as Shikamaru was observing to. As Shikamaru looked on he felt someone watching him but before he could check the feeling disappeared.

"Troublesome." he sighed looking at the sky. Before walking over to where Choji was now sitting, as he walked he noticed his enigmatic classmate Naruto was walking with him.'Tch I didn't even feel his presence, troublesome blond.' before seeing him send a small smile hiss way and felt the need to smile back. As they reached Choji he asked " is it okay if we sit here?" looking towards Naruto and then back to Choji. "S-sure that's okay."Choji said as he looked at them and smiled as they sat down, before they all looked toward the sky in companionable silence.

Flash Back End

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><p>That's not to say he got along with everybody, Sasuke is notorious for his dislike of him, which started after their first sparing session together.<p>

Flash Back

Two months in to the academy Iruka knew it was time to start sparing. "Alright lets head outside its time for some friendly sparring." Iruka said with a smile waiting till everyone was gone before he to headed out.

"Now I'm going to be partnering you based on your taijutsu level you've displayed in class so far."

"Okay Sakura, Ino your up." He said gesturing to the ring.

"Yes sensei" they both said at the same time before glaring at each other as they walked into the ring and settling into the academy taijutsu stance waiting for the match to begin.

"Alright Begin." He said after he walked to the edge of the ring.

"You'll never beat me forehead girl"Ino taunted as they ran at each other and exchanged some punches and kicks "Oh yeah Ino-pig" Sakura yelled back as she kick Ino in the side before punching her in the face and out of the ring. "Oooh that hurt." Ino groaned as she sat up and rubbed her face.

"Winner Sakura. Good job Sakura." Iruka said smiling at his student. "Thank you sensei. she said as she sat down on a bench nearby.

"Alright Shikamaru Choji your turn." Smiling as he heard Shikamaru groan as he got up.

"Man what a drag." he said as he dragged himself into the ring with smiling Choji following him

"Alright you two begin." said Iruka as he waited for the to start the only problem was the y didn't, they just stood there staring at each other. Five minutes later and you could hear the crickets chirping and Iruka's eyes were twitching so badly he looked like he was going to have seizure before yelling out "Just fight already!"

Before shikamaru called out that he forfeit, and they waked out of the ring smirking.

"Alright Kiba Shino your up" he said calling them over. "Woop come on Akamaru let's go." Kiba said excited at finaly getting to fight. "Sorry Kiba but Akamaru can't fight with you." "What why?" Because nin animals count as ninja tools Iruka said sternly. "Sorry buddy guess I have to fight without you." "Woof" He said as he put Akamaru down and walked into the ring where Shino was waiting for him.

"Now begin." As soon as he finished Kiba jumped at Shino with a claw strike that he dodged by jumping back and countering with a side kick before immediately jumping up as he tried to swipe his legs out from under him kicking him in the head, as he tried to recover Shino rushed at him and kicked him out of the ring.

After the last par was done he called Naruto and Sasuke. " Alright guys now shake hands," which they did "and Begin!"

As they stood in the ring Naruto waited for Sasuke to make the first move which he did and just as he was taking his first step forward with his fist raised, his eyes widened as Naruto dashed to the side disappearing from his sight before appearing behind him and pinning him before he could even finish his first step.

"Wha! okay Naruto let Sasuke up" Iruka said, even though he was shocked that an academy student could move at such speed. "Okay Iruka-sensei" Naruto replied as he let Sasuke go,

"Here let me help you up. " As he gave him his hand but Sasuke slapped it away "I don't need your help. Sensei I want a rematch." Sasuke said never looking away from Naruto.

"Okay Sasuke," So they both went back to the starting position in the ring"and Begin!"

This time Sasuke was prepared for Naruto when he lost sight of him and threw his punch where he knew Naruto was going to appear, but Naruto had anticipated the move so instead of going to the side he went up, appearing on Sasukes shoulders just as he overextended his punch by hitting nothing but air. Sasuke didn't even have time to realize his mistake before he was pinned again. "Winner Naruto." Iruka announced, before Sasuke stood angrily and attempted to hit Naruto but he dodged by stepping back and pinned Sasuke's arm behind his back. "Now that's enough." Iruka shouted as he walked over to them "Sasuke detention for attacking you classmate outside of a spar and Naruto." Iruka trailed off as he hadn't done anything wrong. "You did very good in the spar, I didn't know your skills were so advanced." Iruka stated with a smile on his face acknowledging him for the first time as his pupil. Ever since that day Sasuke has harbored a deep anger at Naruto for his defeat at his hands and no matter what Naruto tried it didn't help.

Flash Back End

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><p>Shisui was worried he had just informed the Hokage of the coup the Uchiha are planning and was given permission to use his Sharingan to subtly discourage his clan, only on his way back to the compound Danzo one of the shinobi elders confronted him and attempted to take his unique sharingan for himself only to be effortlessly subdued by genjutsu, so using Izanagi a technique he was able due to use due to a sharingan he had stolen, he escaped the genjustu surprising Shisui and managed to take his right eye, before he escaped. Now he was standing on a cliff overlooking the Naka river waiting for Itachi to show up.<p>

As Naruto walked to the training ground after the academy that he wondered how Shisui was doing so activating his sensing technique Mind's Eye of the Kagura he located him and was worried when he sensed that he was injured and very worried about something, wanting to help his friend he took to the rooftops as fast as he could and disappeared in a series of body flickers arriving shortly after, landing in the clearing he made his way to Shisui.

Itachi was worried Shisui was acting odd the last time he'd seen him and now he was calling him out to a remote river away from the clan with a message that relayed its urgency, he made his way there as fast as he could. Getting to the river in time to see shisui finishing a conversation with a boy around Sasuke's age before giving him something, what it was he couldn't see but could tell it was important. He walked into the clearing just as the boy body flickered away.

When Naruto arrived at the river he was concerned to see that Shisui was missing an eye, and knowing just how powerful his eyes were was mildly worried. Making his way over to him," Shisui what happened?" Naruto asked concerned for his well being.

"Naruto what are you doing here?" he asked startled that his young friend was here.

" I sensed you were injured so came to help you." He said worried about him

"I'm fine Naru" "your not fine Shisui you missing an eye" he said semi hysterically before he to was cut off "That's not important Naruto! sigh sorry for snapping at you but now isn't the time to worry about me, sigh the reason I'm missing an eye is because one of the village elders ambushed me and stole one of my eyes before I managed to escape. Listen Naruto, events are happening right now that I tried to stop on my own. But now I see the futility of that action, this isn't something that do away with so easily.

"What events are you talking about Shisui. Tell me please." Naruto pleaded desperately.

"The Uchiha clan is planning a coup d'etat , there planning to take over the village and I was going to stop it without any bloodshed by using Kotoamatsukami on the clan head, but Danzo ambushed me, and something he said has me doubting myself, sigh, Naruto promise me something. Promise me that no matter what you will always protect the village, even when you learn of its darkness you'll never let it weaken you resolve."

"I promise you Shisui I will protect the village no matter what." Naruto promised with all of his conviction.

"Good" he said as he smiled gently, looking out at the river, before turning back to Naruto and reaching up with his left hand and ripping out his left eye without flinching and giving it to Naruto who was shocked at watching his friend ripping out his own eye, but still took it knowing this would be the last time he saw him. Smiling up at him with tears in his eyes he whispered "Goodbye Ni-san." Before he body flickered as he sensed another Uchiha approaching.

Arriving at his apartment he placed the eye in a glass jar filled with a liquid that would preserve it so he could put it away where no one would find it knowing it would be dangerous in the wrong hands and not having any need of it right now but knowing he could use it in the future.

**AN: Hoped you liked this chapter, I'm try to develop Naruto's character while also advancing the plot so I hope you leave a review to tell me what you like about the story and what to change to make it better. Thank you. (:**


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